British Columbia launches e-mail service for informing partners of STD infection

The British Columbia Centre for Disease Control is taking an innovative approach in combating the prevalence of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Utilizing the ubiquity of the internet, the health agency has launched a service allowing those infected with STDs to send anonymous e-mail notifications regarding their condition to their sexual partners, according to the Vancouver Sun.

This e-mail notification service is called Internet Notification Service for Partners or Tricks (inSPOT). Cards can be send with complete discretion to as many as six partners at once, informing recipients of the infected individual's STD and providing the location of the nearest facility in their area offering testing and treatment services.

British Columbia is not the first province in Canada to employ such a service. Ontario first provided e-mail STD notifications for residents of Ottawa and Toronto. Before that, San Francisco used the system before any other location, prompted by a prevalence of syphilis infection.

Public health officials are positive about the system's possibilities for British Columbia, which was rocked by 11,838 chlamydia cases and 1,321 gonorrhea cases in 2010, according to the news source.

The inSPOT program was initially developed by Internet Sexuality Information Services, a California-based non-profit organization promoting advocacy and awareness regarding sexual health and STDs established in 2001.